Showdown at the BCS Corral: Big-12 v. SEC

While the majority of the sport-watching community is a tizzy over tennis, or soccer, or baseball, I’m counting down the hours until the start of college football season. Nothing against tennis, soccer, or baseball: they are all fine sports. Even the Senate doesn’t know what to do with itself without football: Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) sought a hearing to look at whether Bowl Championship Series is in compliance with federal antitrust laws. Citing the Sherman Antitrust Act, Hatch suggests that the BCS does nothing more than reduce competition, and suggests that the Senate must step in to ensure a change, preferably to a play-off type situation. I am glad that Congress has nothing more pressing to spend time on than college football. It makes me feel like I’m really dedicating my time to something useful and important by blogging about it. Thanks for the ego boost, Senators! Look, this is the second time this year that Congress decided to look into this mess, so I won’t cover it here. They keep looking at it and looking at it and nothing ever changes.

Anyway, since I have entire months of July and August left before I get to see pigskin fly, I wish it away thinking about rivalries. J. R. is doing a great job running through the SEC teams for the Pub, introducing everyone or reminding them of the reasons that the SEC is so often on top. Whenever a team or conference dominates, the next team or conference in line fights like hell to make a move on that top spot. Just look at the ferocity that FSU and Bobby Bowden are showing when fighting the NCAA penalty. Without of those games, Bowden won’t be in the running to compete with Joe Paterno for title of winningest coach. Or take a gander at Alabama, also fighting the vacated wins, since without them Tennessee is within arm’s reach of winningest SEC program. Given all this fighting over winningest, it’s about time that MicroSoft Word validates these coach’s dreams and include “winningest” in their dictionary.

One of the biggest rivalries is the between the Big 12 conference and the Southeastern conference (SEC, in case you’re blind, deaf, and dumb…maybe not blind).  The Big 12 keeps popping up as the conference to take the title of best football conference from the SEC. There are so many turnovers, they give Karl Malone a run for his money. I think that the Big 12 makes a charge, but that overall, the SEC is still on top in football. With Urban Meyer and Nick Saban working their magic, the tenacity of the LSU Tigers, and the strength of Georgia, the SEC should stay strong for the foreseeable future. Not that a conference with Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma can really be discounted, but looking at a side-by-side comparison, well, there is no contest.

One game can’t settle anything, but one would have thought that the way Florida handled Oklahoma at the last championship game would have helped calm everyone down. No dice. Through 2008-2009, the SEC had 346 bowl wins. The next closest conference is the Pac-10, with 193. The SEC is obviously dominant when it comes to bowl appearances and performance. To be fair, the Big 12 is a very recent conference. If we look at current affiliations, the SEC is still on top with 364 wins, but the Big 12 comes very close, though, with 315 wins.  It gets a bit stickier when we just look at championship wins: the Big 12 and the SEC are tied at 16, thanks in large part to Florida’s remarkable streak. Tebow, flying like an eagle, is taking it to the limit.

I know that an argument can’t be made solely on history. If that was all, then the Big 12 versus SEC argument would be a lot clearer. What people are peddling is the idea that the Big 12 is making a move to upset the SEC. There is no denying the talent in the Big 12, but given the restructuring in the SEC and its continued dominance given a down year last year, the future looks bright for the conference. So bright, I have in fact sent shades to all of my favorite coaches.  It’s true that Bob Stoops will continue to lead Oklahoma to dominate the conference and the national scene. Mack Brown will be doing the same with Texas, and Gary Pinkel will be back to lead Missouri, probably to another bowl. Bo Pelini is coming off a solid season with Nebraska, and while I doubt he’ll become another Tom Osborne, he sure as hell isn’t looking like a repeat of the Steve Penderson/Bill Calahan disaster (I think I know where Billy Gillispie learned how to coach). There is little doubt that Oklahoma and Texas will be on top of their games for the foreseeable future, but even so, they do not threaten to take down the SEC, though they give it a good scare.

After all, Alabama will be back on track with Nick Saban. He showed immediate and decisive action when violations came to light, turning around the program on that count. And regardless of the turmoil, he brought a strong team to the table. I can’t wait to see how he revives the program, given more time and less of a mess. Speaking of messes, if Lane Kiffin is half as good at coaching as he is at being an ass, Tennessee will be in for some good, good years. I’ll be looking to see how successful he is at following in Fulmer’s footsteps. And, let’s not forget Urban Meyer who managed to lead Florida to dominate nearly every team in the conference (63-5 against UK, 51-21 against #3 LSU, 49-10 against #8 Georgia, just for a taste). I guess Tebow helped a bit, too.

Both conferences bring a lot to the metaphorical table. As far as I’m concerned, the debate could rage on forever. Like Sisyphus’s eternal task, these programs will have their ups and downs, leading to an endless back and forth. Historical data give us some perspective on where the programs stand with regard to each other, but historical is much less interesting than the future. I see great potential in the Big 12 and the SEC, but given everything the SEC takes the cake. This year’s season will be a real thriller.

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Tags: ailanthus altissima, alabama, BCS, Big 12, Daily Specials, florida, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Orrin Hatch is a bored old weirdo, sec, Tebow, Tennessee, texas
Categories: Domestics

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Domestics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.